1)
The sailing of Bartholomew Dias,
the Portuguese sailor, towards the Cape of Good Hope brought the African
continent to the notice of European nations.
2)
The trade of slaves carried on by
Europeans brought the European
nations in association with the coastal region of Africa.
3)
Africa was known as the unknown or
Dark Continent as the westerners did not have any idea of the interiors of the
African Continent.
4)
In the second half of the 19th
century, the courageous European travelers Mungo Park, Captain Speke, Samuel
Baker, David Livingstone, and Stanley discovered the regions belonging to the
basins of the Nile, the Niger, the Congo and the Zambezi rivers in Africa.
5)
The travelogue by American Stanley,
an American journalist woke up a curiosity in the European people regarding
Africa.
6)
There began the competition the
European nations among the capturing the best regions of Africa.
7)
By 1870, England had set up
colonies in the coastal regions of Cape, Natal, Lagos, and Gold Coast in
Gambia, Sudan, Uganda, Rhodesia, East Africa, Nigeria and Egypt.
8)
France had colonized Algeria,
French Guinea, Ivory Coast, the Senegal basin, the Sahara desert, Madagascar
Island and Morocco.
9)
Portugal brought under its control Mozambique,
Angola.
10)
The Dutch set up colonies in Cape
colony, Natal, and Transvaal
11)
By the Principle of 'Effective possession'
agreed in the Berlin Conference held in 1884, king Leopold's possession of the
region in Congo of Belgium was given consent (permission)
to erect colony in the Congo River basin.
12)
Barring Ethiopia and Liberia, the
entire African continent was colonized by the European nations.
13)
Thus, the African nations remained
under the foreign rule for years to come. They were exploited in various waays
by the European nations which grew richer.
